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Vikings: Economic Life
Pillaging The Vikings only barely had an understanding and knowledge of coinage and economics at the beginning of their age, but the situation began to change with the increased trading between them and nearby countries. There was also another major reason as to why the Vikings indulged themselves more and more with the concept of coinage - their countless pillages and raids on other countries gave them a close experience on how coins looked and were handled for trading. This exposure was crucial for the development of their own coinage as they often found themselves having taken home a large amount of different coins via their pillaging. Naturally, the Vikings wanted to have their own form of coins as a means to have their culture be seen as more civilized and less barbarian. It didn't take long before they started producing their own type of coins, though their first types could be seen more as copies of already established coins than something unique. The first Vikings to raid the British Isles had as an example coins that bore the name of Alfred the Great, one of the rulers of the Isles, instead of one of their own rulers. Since it was often easier and preferable for British rulers to pay off the invading vikings instead of fighting them, a lot of different types of British coins went into a more global circulation and could be found wherever the Vikings could be found. These payments to get rid of the Vikings was called Danegeld, and even though it was a massive failure as the Vikings continued to raid and pillage the British Isles, it did essentially kick-start their history of coinage. Markets and Regulation Standardization The viking age was very much the time when Northern Europe started to adopt standardization of both measurement units and the value of various items relative to each other. This was done partly because of increasing cultural influence from the rest of Europe and because of the increase in productivity and trade. Units of weight and units of value were closely related, and they were even called by the same name at times. This was because the most common form of currency was silver coins, which were valued simply by their purity and weight. Also worth noting is that the weight and value system was based on an Islamic system because of trade influence. In Iceland trade was more controlled than in most of Northern Europe and therefore we have rough estimates of how much you could buy for what amount of silver. 8 ounces of silver was roughly worth one ounce of gold, 4 milk cows or 24 sheep. For 12 ounces of silver you could buy an adult male slave. Taxes and Fees Taxes were more or less non-existent because of the lack of centralized government, the laws were enforced by the people rather than any law enforcement. There were however some fees. In places through which a lot goods moved, most notably a few trade towns, merchants coming by ship had to pay a fee for being allowed to stay in the harbour, use storage space and for a supply of water. Prices Prices of goods and services were generally governed by factors such as availability and demand very much like an ideal free market economy but there were some exceptions to this rule. Notably there was a custom in Iceland where the local chieftain (''goði'') set the prices of the goods that merchants sold. This resembles modern market control and was likely put in place to avoid merchants being able to set prices unfairly. Coinage Vikings did use silver coins liberally but rarely any coins in the name of any viking establishment or person. Most coins used were either minted by smiths in modern-day France and Germany, which had Christian motifs, coins brought by Arabic merchants or coins minted by local smiths but which resembled already existing, non-viking motifs. Coins were however never used as the symbolic currency used today but rather they were valued by the amount of silver they contained. Coins were graded by their quality and were simply weighed for a transaction. The actual image stamped on a coin were used to verify the purity of the coin, not to verify that the coin is genuine. Coins were widely adopted even in a bartering economy largely because of the simplicity. They were usually of high purity and had a level of assurance since they were stamped which added difficulty to a counterfeiting process. They also had an advantage to other silver since the most common form of silver was in the form of jewelry, which oftentimes had to be cut for a transaction, thereby destroying the value of it as a crafted item rather than a commodity. Trade The vikings traded just like everyone has done and are doing.They traded both luxury goods and regular goods (for the vikings and not the one’s who bought it). They imported silver, weapons, slaves, silk, spices, wine, and animal skin. Vikings hunted a lot and therfore had a lot of animal fur and leather. Animals were hunter and after being killed they were flayed, the skin was cleaned and later exported and sold. The goods vikings exported were falcons, whale bones, walrus ivory, amber and honey. The trading started with small markets on the beaches, they later grew to small villages and in the end to trading towns. Examples of the towns are Birka, Hedeby and Ribe. Vikings traded most often over short distances in Scandinavia, but they also traded in the Arab states. Many people went on expedition, they had big boats and lots of goods that was going to be traded. There were many ships at the sea so it was common to stop and trade even on the sea. Ships from England could go down to France or to Spain, or to a new place on earth.